Attempted Ballet
by Martial Arts Master
Summary: I wrote this fic in response to Toki-chan's Digimon romance fic challenge. This romance is subtle, but I think there's enough of it to count. Please review! And Toki-chan, please tell me whether this meets your challenge or not.


Attempted Ballet by Martial Arts Master Digimon and all related characters are copyrighted by Saban, TV Tokyo, and whoever originally created the Digimon Tamagotchi-like things that started off the whole Digimon craze. This fic takes place after the "Davis Cries Wolfman" episode. I wrote this fic in answer to Toki-chan's challenge about writing a Digimon romance fic. However, some of you might remember the last time I did a romance fic. Birdo's Past, remember? You can find it in the Mario section. Anyway, that came out a little too mushy for my liking. So I'm making this one more subtle. As in, the Digimon don't actually get together, but they do like each other even though one of them doesn't admit it to most people. Ok, now that my explanation's out of the way, let's get on with the story.  
  
***  
Davis was sleeping one Friday night. He was having a dream, though what it was about even he didn't know. Suddenly he heard a loud crash. At first he thought it was in his dream, but the crash woke him up. He got out of bed and saw Demiveemon lying in a heap on the floor.  
"Whoa! Are you ok, Demiveemon?" Davis asked.  
Demiveemon got up groggily. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "Though I can't say as much for my pride."  
"What happened?" Davis asked.  
"Simply put, I was practicing ballet and I fell over," Demiveemon replied.  
Davis was confused, and said, "And that caused that big crash?"  
"Well, I was trying a jumping pirouette and I fell," Demiveemon admitted.  
Davis smirked and said, "Oh, I get it. You still hope to impress Gatomon one day."  
"I WILL impress her!" Demiveemon retorted. "As soon as I get the hang of this stupid ballet thing!"  
Davis could see that he had inadvertantly hit a sore spot, and to calm Demiveemon down he said, "Well, ballet can't be that stupid if Gatomon likes Patamon because of it."  
Demiveemon sighed.  
"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said.  
"I'll tell you what," Davis said. "Tomorrow's Saturday. How about we go to the park in the morning and practice ballet there?"  
"Ok, great idea!" Demiveemon said happily.  
"But first, can we go to sleep now, please?" Davis asked, getting more tired.  
"Sure," Demiveemon agreed. Soon they were both out like a light.  
  
Meanwhile, in June, Davis's sister's, room, June was awake.  
"Gee, my brother sure has been talking to himself a lot lately," she said to herself. "I think he's gone nuts." Then June went back to sleep.  
  
The next morning, Davis and Demiveemon were at the park.  
"Ok, Demiveemon, let's do some ballet!" Davis shouted enthusiastically.  
"You don't know a thing about ballet, do you?" Demiveemon asked.  
"Well, I, uh---" Davis began.  
"That was a rhetorical question, of course you don't," Demiveemon interrupted.  
"Well if you're so smart, start some ballet and impress me!" Davis retorted.  
"Fine, I will!" Demiveemon said. He started spinning like there was no tomorrow. He kept spinning for a minute, and then he got dizzy and fell over.  
Davis laughed and said, "Oh sure, Gatomon's gonna be REAL impressed with that!"  
"You should talk, you can't even impress Kari with your sports skills!" Demiveemon retorted.  
Davis was embarassed and said, "Point taken."  
"Ok, I'm gonna go back to practicing ballet now," Demiveemon said, and he did.  
  
Little did Demiveemon know he was being watched from a window by someone with excellent vision. That is, if a Digimon counted as someONE.  
"Heh. I have no idea why Demiveemon's practicing ballet, but he's sure bad at it," Gatomon said to herself.  
"Did you say something, Gatomon?" Kari asked. Kari was reading a book while Gatomon was watching Demiveemon.  
"Yeah," Gatomon answered. "Come over here and take a look. You won't believe this."  
Kari went over to the window and saw Demiveemon trying to do ballet only to keep falling over.  
"Do you have any idea what would make him take such a sudden interest in ballet?" Gatomon asked.  
"Not really, but I get the feeling he's trying to impress someone," Kari theorized.  
Gatomon's face looked downcast for a split-second, and her face went back to normal so quickly Kari couldn't be sure she hadn't imagined it. She decided she had been reading her book too long and decided to go watch some TV with Tai. Kari went into the main room with Tai, and Gatomon continued to watch Demiveemon trying (and failing) to do ballet.  
Gatomon was relieved. Apparently Kari hadn't seen her downcast look when Kari spoke her opinion about Demiveemon trying to impress someone. Gatomon wasn't even sure what had made her so sad about that comment. It wasn't as if she even cared who Demiveemon was trying to impress. It wasn't as if she even liked Demiveemon. He was hyper, for one thing, and he belonged to that jerk Davis. (Author's Note: Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Davis or any good guy [Ken included now that he's good], I'm just telling this from Gatomon's point of view).  
"Actually, that's pretty much the only bad thing about him," Gatomon said to herself. Then she was surprised at her comment. Everyone should have their faults, she should be able to see more faults about Demiveemon. She looked harder at Demiveemon and tried to describe all his good and bad qualities to herself.  
"Let's see, he's cute, even cuter when he's Veemon, enthusiastic, has a really cool Champion form called Exveemon..." Gatomon listed. Again, she was surprised at herself. Why was she only able to think of Demiveemon's GOOD qualities? So far she had been able to think of only one bad thing about Demiveemon, and in some cases his hyperactiveness was a good thing. Gatomon had heard of cases like this before, where someone fell in love with another person, and the first person could only think of the second person's good qualities. But she couldn't be falling in love with...  
She shook her head to clear it of such a thought.  
"I think I've been eating too much catnip," Gatomon said to herself, and went to watch TV with Kari and Tai.  
  
"Oh, I give UP!" Demiveemon said, exasperated. He had tried to do ballet over and over again, and he had failed each time.  
"Well, I have an idea," Davis said.  
"You do?" Demiveemon asked hopefully.  
"Yeah. Sometimes someone's reflexes go up when threatened with danger," Davis said. "We could go to the Digital World, wait until a Digimon attacks us, and then use your increased reflexes to improve your ballet skills!"  
Demiveemon groaned. "Not another one of your harebrained schemes! Remember the last time you had some harebrained scheme?"  
"And it worked!" Davis retorted. "You managed to Digi-volve into Exveemon!"  
"Not by your scheme, though!" Demiveemon shot back. "It was only because of a REAL threat, not some manufactured one!"  
Davis noted to himself that Demiveemon seemed a lot angrier than usual. He thought it was probably just anger that he couldn't master ballet.  
"Oh well," Demiveemon continued. "It may very well be my only chance. Let's find a computer and go to the Digiworld!"  
An hour later, after having managed to convince Izzy to let them use their computer, Davis and Demiveemon, after Demiveemon Digi-volved to Veemon, were in the Digiworld. And they had a surprise waiting for them.  
"SURPRISE!" Tortomon shouted, running into the clearing in which Davis and Veemon were in. "You two idiots defeated me last time, but now it's time for revenge!"  
Davis smirked.  
"We beat you last time and we can beat you again, WITHOUT Veemon Digi-volving into Exveemon!" Davis shouted out.  
Veemon was surprised to say the least.  
"You expect me to face that thing without Digivolving?!" Veemon shouted.  
"Veemon, obviously your Champion form has good reflexes, but most Champion forms do and that won't impress Gatomon," Davis explained. "Now if your ROOKIE form had amazing reflexes, being good at ballet would follow, and Gatomon would be all yours!"  
"I hope you know what you're doing," Veemon said.  
Suddenly Tortomon charged at Veemon.  
"VEE-HEADBUTT!" Veemon shouted, trying to ram into Tortomon with a headbutt. Tortomon flicked him away with his tail.  
"BO-RING!" Tortomon said. "Can't you do better than that?"  
Veemon tried another Vee-Headbutt, this time at Tortomon's head. Tortomon charged at Veemon and knocked him into a tree.  
"Come on, Veemon! You gotta have better reflexes than that!" Davis shouted.  
"It's too late!" Tortomon said. "STRONG CARAPACE!"  
Veemon looked up and saw a bunch of spikes heading at him. He managed to twist around some of them but the rest knocked him to the ground.  
Oddly enough, Davis didn't seem too concerned.  
"Aw, this is nuts! Come ON, Veemon! You can do better than that! You gotta get faster!" Davis said.  
  
Meanwhile, Gatomon's fur tensed. Something was happening to Veemon, she could FEEL it. Then she wondered why she'd be so in-tune to the feelings of someone who she didn't even like. Suddenly the feeling became overwhelming, and Gatomon ran out of the room. Kari followed her.  
"Hey wait, Gatomon, stop!" Kari shouted, and Gatomon stopped.  
"What's the matter?" Kari went on to say.  
"I don't know, but I think something bad's happening to Veemon," Gatomon said.  
"How come you're so in-tune to his feelings?" Kari asked.  
"I dunno," Gatomon said. "I asked myself the same question."  
Kari smirked. "You like him, don't you?" she said bluntly.  
"Have you gone BONKERS?!" Gatomon shouted, blushing. "Why on earth would I like some puny blue thing like Veemon."  
Kari got a serious look on her face. "Feelings aside, if Veemon's in trouble I think we should help him."  
"I agree, but this I'd like to do by myself," Gatomon said.  
"Fine with me," Kari said, smirking again.  
Gatomon shook her head. Kari was one of the nicest Digidestined, but even she was prone to teasing people. She was inaccurate, of course, but Gatomon wondered whether Veemon was all right. She ran out of the apartment and went to Izzy's apartment.  
  
Meanwhile, back in the Digiworld, Veemon, not having fast reflexes, was getting his butt kicked by Tortomon. And for some reason, (Author's note: the reason will be explained at the end of the story) Davis wasn't too concerned about this.  
"Come on, Davis! Digivolve me into Exveemon!" Veemon pleaded.  
"Sorry, Veemon, but you gotta develop good reflexes first," Davis said.  
Tortomon charged and knocked Veemon into a tree again.  
Suddenly a familiar voice said, "Cat's Eye Hypnotism!"  
Tortomon turned to look in the direction where the voice came from, and promptly fell asleep.  
Veemon, who was close to unconsciousness, wondered what in the name of heck had happened.  
"So Veemon, are you ok?" the voice asked. Veemon and Davis looked in the direction of the voice. Sure enough, there was Gatomon, standing there with a worried look on her face.  
"Yeah, I'm..." Veemon began to say, but suddenly he passed out.  
  
When he woke up, he found himself lying in a bed. He felt much better now and got out of bed. He didn't recognize the room he was in, but he walked out of it anyway. He was surprised to see he was at the Kamiya residence. Gatomon turned to him and said nonchalantly, "Glad to see you awake."  
Was it Veemon's imagination, or did he detect a hint of relief in her voice? He dismissed it as his imagination. There was no way Gatomon even noticed him. He asked, "How did I get here?"  
"Oh, I brought you here," Gatomon said in the same nonchalant voice. "And you'll be surprised to hear that Davis set the whole thing up with Tortomon. I forced him to tell that after I figured out he was hiding something after he stupidly blurted out that Tortomon would never have killed you."  
"Thanks for the help," Veemon said. Later that day, in revenge for involving Veemon in his hairbrained scheme, let's just say that Veemon played a prank on Davis involving clown make-up. Afterwards, he stared longingly out the window.  
"Someday I'll get Gatomon to like me," Veemon said to himself.  
  
Back at the Kamiya residence, Gatomon, too, was staring out the window. She was thinking about how peaceful Veemon looked when he slept, like an angel.  
"What on earth is WRONG with me?" Gatomon asked herself. She was confused as to why she was thinking such thoughts about Veemon.  
"Well, I'll sort them out in time," Gatomon said, and went away from the window. She'd sort out her thoughts, but in the meantime she had a show she wanted to watch.  
  
The End  
  
***  
  
E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@msn.com. 


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